


Savoring a Lazy Afternoon

by hemsglee



Series: Panther T'Challa [3]
Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: Courting Rituals, Cute Kids, Flirting, M/M, Panther T'Challa, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-21
Updated: 2018-02-21
Packaged: 2019-03-21 17:28:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13745808
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hemsglee/pseuds/hemsglee
Summary: Everett wasn't sure what he expected when Shuri asked him to find T'Challa for her.Certainly not T'Challa in his panther form, playing chase with a pair of laughing children at a playground.





	Savoring a Lazy Afternoon

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Polski available: [Delektując się wolnym popołudniem](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14024970) by [Lampira7](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lampira7/pseuds/Lampira7)



Dressed in traditional Wakandan clothing, wearing no shoes, and protected by one of Shuri's Kimoyo bracelets, Everett Ross walked the well worn paths of Wakanda's streets doing his best to avoid the looks of its skeptical population. They had all the reason in the world to be wary of his presence, and he understood that- if he was part of a population of people that had hidden away from the rest of the world successfully for far longer than any of them had even been _alive_ , he would be afraid of an outsider as well.

He didn't judge Wakanda's people for the way they judged him. He knew it was an unfair way to see the current situation, as _he_ was the one intruding on their land. He was a trespasser in a world he didn't belong to, and the only reason he remained was because he had been caught up in a bad situation.

But still, though he understood their distaste toward him, that didn't mean that it didn't sting.

Normally when he walked the streets he was under the protection of the Dora Milaje, as per T'Challa's orders, but today he walked alone and vulnerable. He knew no harm would come to him unless T'Challa ordered it, but still he felt odd walking without any of the warriors walking beside him. He had even formed a tentative friendship with some of them, but nothing remotely like his bond with the royal family or Nakia or even Okoye.

He stuck out like a sore thumb no matter what precautions he took, but he did his best to keep his gaze on the ground ahead of him and his mind on his mission. The current objective was finding T'Challa, as per a request from Shuri (why she couldn't just contact him using her normal methods he didn't know), and it wasn't going so well. He felt as though he had already searched every spot he had been shown when Nakia took him around the areas surrounding the palace, but still there was no sign of the king anywhere. Had Everett not been so stubborn and full of pride he would have given up by now, but as it was, he restarted his search back where it had begun, with his eyes now less on the ground and more on his surroundings.

He ended up in one of the innumerable areas full of hyperactive children, a place T'Challa affectionately referred to as "home" when he first showed it to Everett. The thought of T'Challa playing there as a child had brought a smile to Everett's normally stoic face that day, one that hadn't gone unnoticed by Shuri, who teased him about it for hours afterward.

As sensitive feet walked along the soft grass, Everett heard the loud joyous laughter of children from somewhere nearby. He had always been good with kids, though he never had any himself, and it seemed these kids were no different as two of them ran to Everett and grabbed his hands as they laughed and ducked behind him. Everett raised an eyebrow and looked to where they had run in from, the boy looking up at him and saying something excitedly in Xhosa that Everett couldn't understand.

"He's white, stupid, he doesn't speak our language," the girl said and held Everett's hand tighter, the boy rolling his eyes and repeating what he had said in English.

"I said _run_ , the Black Panther is coming!"

With that the boy screamed and took off, the girl following him gleefully and pulling Everett with her as she did. Everett stumbled a bit but followed her, wondering how he had gotten caught up in a game of hide and seek with these kids. The girl pulled him behind a bush and ducked down to hide, Everett doing the same and peeking through the leaves to see what other child they were hiding from. He figured they were doing some type of role-playing, one of the kids hunting the others under the guise of either an actual black panther or maybe even T'Challa.

What he hadn't expected was for a living breathing panther to step out of the trees, rational thought leaving Everett as he shoved the girl behind him for her safety. As he watched the panther stalk around with its body low to the grass, he noticed the boy they had been with laughing and trying to sneak around the panther undetected. Everett didn't even have time to react before the panther lunged at the child, knocking him into the grass as the boy cried out in surprise.

Everett jumped out from behind the bush and ran over, intending to do whatever he needed to to protect the boy and get the panther away from him, but what he found was the panther standing above him and docilely batting at the boy's face with his paws. The boy laughed and spoke through his giggles in Xhosa, the girl from earlier running in and pouncing on the panther's back. Everett stood a few feet away and watched as the panther happily carried her around and the boy followed, finally realizing what was happening before him.

"Your Majesty?"

The panther looked up and finally seemed to notice Everett's presence, tail flicking playfully as the girl on his back leaned over and whispered in his ear. T'Challa looked to Everett as the girl climbed off of him, and the next thing Everett knew he was being held against a tree by the incredible height of the panther. Two huge paws rested on either side of his neck, just above his shoulders, head held just a bit higher than Everett's own. Everett paled as he looked up at the intimidating face of T'Challa's panther form, intense amber eyes staring him down.

"Your Majesty, um... Shuri sent me to find you, are you by any chance not wearing your Kimoyo beads?"

To answer his own question, Everett looked to the paw beside his head, finding the bracelet still there even in T'Challa's animal form and functioning properly. A wave of confusion hit him, looking back into T'Challa's eyes with an eyebrow raised. "Have you gotten any calls from Shuri? She said she wasn't able to establish a connection with you so she had me go out and find you."

Before Everett could blink T'Challa was human again, standing in the same position with his hands boxing Everett in against the tree. He shook his head with a shrug and a smile that could only be described as devious, saying "Shuri hasn't tried to speak with me since I left the palace this morning."

"That doesn't make any sense, she came to me and told me you were missing and that she was worried. She said she already had the Dora Milaje out looking for you, but she wanted me to go as well as an extra pair of eyes," he said and tried to communicate with Shuri through his own bracelet, to no avail.

"Shuri wouldn't send you or the Dora Milaje out to do a job she could do herself, especially not when it was something as trivial as locating me when I had already told her exactly where I would be," T'Challa said, still holding Everett against the tree even as the children began tugging on his clothes so he would come play with them again.

Everett tried to come up with a logical explanation for why Shuri had sent him out if T'Challa was speaking the truth, but he couldn't fathom one. Instead he awkwardly ducked under T'Challa's arm and took a few steps away, trying again to figure out how to get a hold of Shuri. Suddenly an arm wrapped around him, T'Challa's hand taking hold of the bead Everett was struggling with and showing him how to use it. A hologram of the princess appeared over Everett's hand, a wide smile on her face.

"Ah, I see you two are spending some time together," she said, T'Challa's hand on Everett's shoulder squeezing slightly and his thumb massaging the tense muscle under his fingers. Everett didn't shy away from the king's touch but did squirm a bit, still not used to Wakanda's technological advances or casual customs.

When he finally collected his thoughts, Everett cleared his throat and said "T'Challa says he told you this morning where he was going, so why did you send me out to find him and tell me he was missing?"

"I did no such thing," Shuri said with a smile that dripped with sneaky lies and sarcastic obliviousness. Everett knit his eyebrows together and opened his mouth to speak, closing it again and looking at T'Challa. The king didn't make eye contact with him but instead with his sister, the two sharing a few looks that could have passed for a silent and near statuesque language. The royal siblings were close, Everett had already known that, but he didn't think they were close enough to have silent conversations with such ease and grace.

"Listen, Mr. Ross, my brother and I have no idea what you ate for dinner last night, but it obviously made you sick in the head and made you have an imaginary conversation with me during which I asked you to locate my brother when I already knew where he was. Common mistake, happens to the best of us. Now that you're there though, why don't you stay and play with the kids?" Shuri didn't take her eyes off T'Challa even as she spoke to Everett, leaving the agent more confused than ever. Before he could say anything else Shuri disappeared, leaving him with T'Challa's hand on his shoulder and the two kids tugging on them both to play.

"You heard her. Stay and play," T'Challa suggested casually to Everett, returning to his panther form and running off after the screaming kids. Everett gave himself a few seconds to readjust and gather his thoughts before slowly walking after T'Challa and the kids, still staring down at where Shuri's holographic form had been.

-x-

"He put you up to it, didn't he?" Nakia asked the princess, sitting just a few feet away as Shuri worked on her ring blades. The princess cracked a slight smile and bit her lip, not sparing Nakia a glance as she said "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Nakia accused playfully, walking over and leaning over Shuri's shoulder. "T'Challa, he asked you to come up with an excuse for him to spend time with agent Ross, didn't he?"

"I didn't take you for the type to accuse my brother of courting white boys, Nakia," Shuri said and looked up at her brother's ex, an amused grin lighting up her face. "You're not jealous, are you?"

Nakia rolled her eyes and shook her head, stepping away from Shuri to hide the look on her face. "Not jealous. Wary."

With an exaggerated sigh, Shuri stopped her work and went to Nakia, putting an arm around her shoulders. "T'Challa's an idiot, but he's not stupid. He would be the first person to know if Ross had any ill intentions toward us. It's an instinct he's told me comes with being the Black Panther, a strong moral compass for himself and those around him, namely when it comes to the protection of our people."

Still not convinced but not wanting to argue any further, Nakia sat back where she had been before and asked "Can you show me what they're doing right now? I want to make sure Mr. Ross is not being a negative influence on our children."

"Of course, _that's_ what you want to check up on," Shuri said knowingly, but pulled up some live footage of the two men anyway. Everett was sitting in the grass with T'Challa curled around him, long black tail tracing up and down Everett's arm lazily. Everett didn't notice the subtle affection, too busy interacting with the small group of kids that was surrounding him and asking him questions. One of the girls was placing flowers in Everett's blonde hair, marveling at the texture and color of it as he spoke.

A boy suddenly asked him with a gleam of mischief in his voice "Do you like to play tag, Mr. Ross?"

Everett's smile lit up as he pretended to ponder the question. "I do, actually... But only when you're it!"

With that he tapped the boy on his shoulder and sent the other children running, the boy letting out a warrior scream before running off after his peers to find someone to tag. Everett watched him go and laughed, looking down at T'Challa as a flower fell out of his hair and onto the king's nose.

"That's a great look, Your Majesty," he teased and took the flower off of T'Challa, the king opening one eye and standing from where he had been curled around Everett's back. He stretched out and stood again, touching his forehead to Everett's briefly before shifting back to his human form.

"You'd be a great father, Mr. Ross," the king noted with a smirk, looking to the children and scooping up the first one that came near him. With blush dotting his cheeks, Everett watched T'Challa, hardly noticing when a girl ran over and tackled him with an elated cry of "Tag! You're it!"

**Author's Note:**

> I'm having so much fun writing this series of one shot Everpanther stories! I don't know how long I'll be able to do daily updates, but I posted one yesterday and here's one today! Also, the title for this fic comes from the song "Chasing Days" by Danna Richards. Go give it a listen if you can, it's totally a song that I feel describes Everpanther. :')


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